You can watch the videos, but the messages are fairly on the nose:
Jones is getting restless, and coach Greg Jackson isn’t. Both
Jackson and the UFC understand that there’s little upside to
rushing Jones along, matching him in a tough fight before he might
be ready, and tanking his confidence prematurely. This is boxing’s
model for grooming: years and dozens of fights to puff up silly
records that can attract higher prize purses.

Jones will never be strung along that far, but he’s already
flirting with sandbagging. Matyushenko is an incredibly tough,
durable fighter, but he also fit the classic archetype of an aging
athlete with name recognition that’s fed to the promising younger
talent. Thirty seconds in, the difference in speed was obvious, and
the ending was inevitable. “I respect him,” Jones said after the
fight. “He’s dangerous.” But it was the kind of cursory, empty
compliment you pay more out of respect for a man’s career than what
he was able to bring on the night in question.

In the end, Jones’ career trajectory will be decided by the UFC,
the ultimate arbitrator of who gets spoon-fed and who gets thrown
into the fire. After the fight, Dana White was promising a “top
eight” opponent for next time.

“The kid’s going to make a lot of money,” he said. So will the UFC.
How best to monetize Jones -- not Jones himself, and not Jackson --
will decide what’s next.

Next for Yushin
Okami: A grueling win over Mark Munoz
puts him back in the title conversation -- unfortunately, an Okami
main event is box office poison. If it happens, expect him to
co-star with a major attraction on the undercard.

Awards

The You’re-Not-Fooling-Anyone Award
Versus, for pushing a “non-stop” event and then condemning viewers
to in-between-rounds commercials by shrinking the in-cage footage
and offering factoids to compel people not to tune out. Watching a
guy hyperventilate while an ad for Bass Pro Shops rolls is an
experience. One not worth repeating.

The Questionable Strategy Award Munoz,
for exerting valuable energy trying to take down Okami when A).
Okami had already displayed the ability to stuff them, and B).
Munoz was having some mild success finding Okami’s chin
standing.

The Hyper AwardChael
Sonnen, for declaring that Anderson
Silva has “ducked me for four years.” This despite Sonnen being
in a position to contend for the title for only the past few months
and being in a different organization altogether for a portion of
that time. Sonnen is somehow finding a way to sound punchy before a
fight even happens.

The Hyper Award, Part II Ariel Helwani,
for blasphemously describing Sonnen as “Muhammad Ali-esque” during
a wrap-up show on Versus. Today’s Ali makes more sense than
Sonnen.

New Questions

Is Jones a heavyweight?

Jones, 23, entered the UFC with the kind of lanky physique that
doesn’t look terribly impressive on TV but resembles a brick wall
when you’re a few feet away. And he’s still growing into it: Jones
said he was over 230 pounds in training and cut from 226. By the
time he’s 30, another 10, 15, or even 20 pounds of natural, lean
mass isn’t out of the question -- but he’d still be giving up size
to behemoths like Brock
Lesnar and Shane
Carwin. Typically, smaller heavyweights survive based on
punching power. That’s one skill Jones hasn’t displayed yet.

Is Versus more attentive than
Spike?

There’s a tremendous advantage to airing events on sports networks:
they have the structure in place to provide the kind of post-fight
coverage that lends everything an air of importance.

Versus went all-out Sunday, talking up Frank Mir, Dana
White, and Jones in a wrap-up. The attention was substantial -- the
more airtime UFC personalities get, the better for their cultural
imprint -- but it had the side effect of making Spike’s cursory
broadcasts weak in comparison.

The next question: will Versus begin to devote this much attention
to their WEC events?

Is the crucifix the most helpless position in
MMA?

In a sport where there’s a counter for virtually everything,
there’s a running joke about the best defense against the crucifix
position: don’t get into it.

The maneuver -- where an opponent pins both your arms and makes a
“T” with your bodies -- essentially makes an amputee of fighters,
taking away their arms while their face is defenseless against a
series of punches or elbows. Jones used it to finish Matyushenko;
Matt
Hughes tied up B.J. Penn with
it. Done properly, it’s hard to watch.

Fortunately, the offensive fighter usually doesn’t have the
leverage or balance to deliver blows of any serious power. The
victim, though, is left to eat nose-breaking damage with little
hope of escape. At The Amateur
level, it might be a position best left to the professionals.

Is Gomi leading a Japanese
comeback?

Nope.

It’s telling that Gomi, 32, preceded a vicious win over Griffin
with an extended training session at AKA in the United States.
Critics of Japanese MMA athletes point to erratic training, a poor
understanding of weight cuts and strategy, and an overall
discomfort with American athletes --many of whom either grew up in
Division I or II wrestling rooms or regularly spar with those who
did -- as roadblocks.

Gomi has incredible power for a lightweight: if he can marry it
with a better regimen, he’ll continue to succeed. But having to go
outside of Japan to do it is more of a condemnation of that
country’s MMA program than an endorsement.

Etc.

Brian
Stann and Mike
Massenziosplit
an $80,000 bonus for Fight of the Night, which went unaired on
the Versus broadcast; Gomi took home $40,000 for KOing Griffin, a
given considering it was the first time anyone had beaten Griffin
inside of the distance…Jones told ESPN’s “SportsCenter “Monday
morning that he’d happily “bump up” to heavyweight to close the
mouth of James Toney,
who had threatened to slap Jones over comments about his Toney’s
abilities. (Or lack of.) Pointless fight. Toney will probably have
more than one UFC fight, but his second should be against a
Mirko
"Cro Cop" Filipovic type, just for violence’s sake.